«Indonesian Online» is under constant development. In 2019, the intermediate course «Baca Yuk!» and the advanced reader «Serba Serbi Nusantara» consisted of 23 lessons each. Now, each course has 33 lessons, meaning that we added 20 lessons during the last three years.
Developing one lesson is time consuming. One of the most daunting tasks is to find suitable raw material, usually texts from a newspaper or an online journal, and a short video with good audio sound and little or no background music. Finding an appropriate text and a suitable matching video for intermediate or advanced proficiency can take several days. We want the texts to be as authentic as possible, so we have to find texts that are neither too short nor too long, are written in good Indonesian with only a few mistakes. This is important because we want the texts to be as authentic as possible, but for the majority of texts some corrections are necessary. Spelling and other mistakes are unfortunately the norm with most Indonesian newspapers and magazines.
After selecting and editing a text, a voice recording of the text must be taken, and only then can we start to develop the exercises, cultural notes, etc. Developing one new intermediate or advanced lesson takes on average 40 hours.
Recent Developments
The most recent developed lessons are “Kulit Putih Perempuan Indonesia” in «Serba Serbi Nusantara», while “Cerita Pendek: Emak Ingin Naik Haji”, parts (1), (2), and (3) were completely overhauled. In «Baca Yuk!», “Padi” is the most recent developed lesson.
«Baca Yuk!» is the perfect continuation of «The Indonesian Way», whereas «Serba Serbi Nusantara» should only be used by students who have a proficiency of at least B1, and preferably B2 on the CEFR scale. They cost $70 each, and you can also purchase them together with «Anak Jalanan», «Aneka Baca», and «Ada Apa dengan Cinta?» in a package called «Bahan Tingkat Atas» for $120. All «Bahan Tingkat Atas» materials together provide you with approximately 350 learning hours.
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